Germany: 14 years of Sad Hockey
by Hawerchuk on Feb 23, 2010 10:37 PM EST
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PrintGermany has played in five top international hockey tournaments since the Berlin Wall fell. Their record against good teams is a sad 1-17:
| Year | Team | Goals | Team | Goals |
| 1996 | Germany | 1 | Sweden | 6 |
| 1996 | Germany | 3 | Finland | 8 |
| 1996 | Germany | 7 | Czech | 1 |
| 1996 | Germany | 1 | Canada | 4 |
| 2002 | Germany | 2 | Czech | 8 |
| 2002 | Germany | 2 | Canada | 3 |
| 2002 | Germany | 1 | Sweden | 7 |
| 2002 | Germany | 0 | USA | 5 |
| 2004 | Germany | 2 | Sweden | 5 |
| 2004 | Germany | 0 | Finland | 3 |
| 2004 | Germany | 2 | Czech | 7 |
| 2004 | Germany | 1 | Finland | 2 |
| 2006 | Germany | 0 | Finland | 2 |
| 2006 | Germany | 1 | Canada | 5 |
| 2006 | Germany | 1 | Czech | 4 |
| 2010 | Germany | 0 | Sweden | 2 |
| 2010 | Germany | 0 | Finland | 5 |
| 2010 | Germany | 2 | Canada | 8 |
| Total | 26 | 85 |
Whatever sadness any other country's fans have experienced, it doesn't seem like it compares. Germany had a solid win against the Czechs in the 1996 World Cup and followed it up with precisely zero games in which they managed three goals, even though they've always been knocking on the door to establish themselves as a top team. And it's not as though they've been particularly unlucky - their pythagorean winning percentage is 8.9% or 1.5 wins out of 18 games.
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I feel bad for Germany, really. I feel that they are a very under-rated natoin when it comes to hockey as their goal-tending and defense is relatively solid. Their offense is the biggest issue. The German DEL is a great European league as well.
This tournament has been great because of countries like Germany, Switzerland, Norway, and even Belarus have given us some great games to watch. The skating is there, now its just up to the skill.
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Germany in general is an excellent athletic nation and they have a large population (compared to other hockey powers, like Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc…), it seems only to be a matter of national hockey programs and development.
For example Sweden, which has had significantly more International hockey success than Germany, has had less overall Olympic success than Germany (776 medals for Germany, 177 of which are for winter sports vs 610/124 for Sweden, all time). Yet Sweden is a better hockey country.
To me it can only be because they aren’t properly developing their youth hockey programs, or their higher-end programs aren’t creating NHL calibre players consistently.
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